Honduras STRONGMAN RULE, 1932-63
Statue of Francisco Morazán, Tegucigalpa
Courtesy Richard Haggerty
The Era of Tiburcio Carías Andino, 1932-54
Despite growing unrest and severe economic strains, the
1932
presidential elections in Honduras were relatively
peaceful and
fair. The peaceful transition of power was surprising
because the
onset of the depression had led to the overthrow of
governments
elsewhere throughout Latin America, in nations with much
stronger
democratic traditions than those of Honduras. Mejía
Colindres,
however, resisted pressure from his own party to
manipulate the
results to favor the PLH candidate, Angel Zúñiga Huete. As
a
result, the PNH candidate, Carías, won the election by a
margin of
some 20,000 votes. On November 16, 1932, Carías assumed
office,
beginning what was to be the longest period of continuous
rule by
an individual in Honduran history.
Lacking, however, was any immediate indication that the
Carías
administration was destined to survive any longer than
most of its
predecessors. Shortly before Carías's inauguration,
dissident
liberals, despite the opposition of Mejía Colindres, had
risen in
revolt. Carías had taken command of the government forces,
obtained
arms from El Salvador, and crushed the uprising in short
order.
Most of Carías's first term in office was devoted to
efforts to
avoid financial collapse, improve the military, engage in
a limited
program of road building, and lay the foundations for
prolonging
his own hold on power.
The economic situation remained extremely bad
throughout the
1930s. In addition to the dramatic drop in banana exports
caused by
the depression, the fruit industry was further threatened
by the
outbreak in 1935 of epidemics of Panama disease (a
debilitating
fungus) and sigatoka (leaf blight) in the banana-producing
areas.
Within a year, most of the country's production was
threatened.
Large areas, including most of those around Trujillo, were
abandoned, and thousands of Hondurans were thrown out of
work. By
1937 a means of controlling the disease had been found,
but many of
the affected areas remained out of production because a
significant
share of the market formerly held by Honduras had shifted
to other
nations.
Carías had made efforts to improve the military even
before he
became president. Once in office, both his capacity and
his
motivation to continue and to expand such improvements
increased.
He gave special attention to the fledgling air force,
founding the
Military Aviation School in 1934 and arranging for a
United States
colonel to serve as its commandant
(see Development of an Independent Military Identity, 1922-63
, ch. 5).
As months passed, Carías moved slowly but steadily to
strengthen
his hold on power. He gained the support of the banana
companies
through opposition to strikes and other labor
disturbances. He
strengthened his position with domestic and foreign
financial
circles through conservative economic policies. Even in
the height
of the depression, he continued to make regular payments
on the
Honduran debt, adhering strictly to the terms of the
arrangement
with the British bondholders and also satisfying other
creditors.
Two small loans were paid off completely in 1935.
Political controls were instituted slowly under Carías.
The
Communist Party of Honduras (Partido Comunista de
Honduras--PCH)
was outlawed, but the PLH continued to function, and even
the
leaders of a small uprising in 1935 were later offered
free air
transportation should they wish to return to Honduras from
their
exile abroad. At the end of 1935, however, stressing the
need for
peace and internal order, Carías began to crack down on
the
opposition press and political activities. Meanwhile, the
PNH, at
the president's direction, began a propaganda campaign
stressing
that only the continuance of Carías in office could give
the nation
continued peace and order. The constitution, however,
prohibited
immediate reelection of presidents.
The method chosen by Carías to extend his term of
office was to
call a constituent assembly that would write a new
constitution and
select the individual to serve for the first presidential
term
under that document. Except for the president's desire to
perpetuate himself in office, there seemed little reason
to alter
the nation's basic charter. Earlier constituent assemblies
had
written thirteen constitutions (only ten of which had
entered into
force), and the latest had been adopted in 1924. The
handpicked
Constituent Assembly of 1936 incorporated thirty of the
articles of
the 1924 document into the 1936 constitution. The major
changes
were the elimination of the prohibition on immediate
reelection of
a president and vice president and the extension of the
presidential term from four to six years. Other changes
included
restoration of the death penalty, reductions in the powers
of the
legislature, and denial of citizenship and therefore the
right to
vote to women. Finally, the new constitution included an
article
specifying that the incumbent president and vice president
would
remain in office until 1943. But Carías, by then a virtual
dictator, wanted even more, so in 1939 the legislature,
now
completely controlled by the PNH, obediently extended his
term in
office by another six years (to 1949).
The PLH and other opponents of the government reacted
to these
changes by attempting to overthrow Carías. Numerous
efforts were
made in 1936 and 1937, but all were successful only in
further
weakening the PNH's opponents. By the end of the 1930s,
the PNH was
the only organized functioning political party in the
nation.
Numerous opposition leaders had been imprisoned, and some
had
reportedly been chained and put to work in the streets of
Tegucigalpa. Others, including the leader of the PLH,
Zúñiga Huete,
had fled into exile.
During his presidency, Carías cultivated close
relations with
his fellow Central American dictators, generals Jorge
Ubico in
Guatemala, Maximiliano Hernández Martínez in El Salvador,
and
Anastasio Somoza García in Nicaragua. Relations were
particularly
close with Ubico, who helped Carías reorganize his secret
police
and also captured and shot the leader of a Honduran
uprising who
had made the mistake of crossing into Guatemalan
territory.
Relations with Nicaragua were somewhat more strained as a
result of
the continuing border dispute, but Carías and Somoza
managed to
keep this dispute under control throughout the 1930s and
1940s.
The value of these ties became somewhat questionable in
1944
when popular revolts in Guatemala and El Salvador deposed
Ubico and
Hernández Martínez. For a time, it seemed as if
revolutionary
contagion might spread to Honduras as well. A plot,
involving some
military officers as well as opposition civilians, had
already been
discovered and crushed in late 1943. In May 1944, a group
of women
began demonstrating outside of the Presidential Palace in
Tegucigalpa, demanding the release of political prisoners.
Despite
strong government measures, tension continued to grow, and
Carías
was ultimately forced to release some prisoners. This
gesture
failed to satisfy the opposition, and antigovernment
demonstrations
continued to spread. In July several demonstrators were
killed by
troops in San Pedro Sula. In October a group of exiles
invaded
Honduras from El Salvador but were unsuccessful in their
efforts to
topple the government. The military remained loyal, and
Carías
continued in office.
Anxious to curb further disorders in the region, the
United
States began to urge Carías to step aside and allow free
elections
when his current term in office expired. Carías, who by
then was in
his early seventies, ultimately yielded to these pressures
and
announced October 1948 elections, in which he would
refrain from
being a candidate. He continued, however, to find ways to
use his
power. The PNH nominated Carías's choice for
president--Juan Manuel
Gálvez, who had been minister of war since 1933. Exiled
opposition
figures were allowed to return to Honduras, and the PLH,
trying to
overcome years of inactivity and division, nominated
Zúñiga Huete,
the same individual whom Carías had defeated in 1932. The
PLH
rapidly became convinced that it had no chance to win and,
charging
the government with manipulation of the electoral process,
boycotted the elections. This act gave Gálvez a virtually
unopposed
victory, and in January 1949, he assumed the presidency.
Evaluating the Carías presidency is a difficult task.
His tenure
in office provided the nation with a badly needed period
of
relative peace and order. The country's fiscal situation
improved
steadily, education improved slightly, the road network
expanded,
and the armed forces were modernized. At the same time,
nascent
democratic institutions withered, opposition and labor
activities
were suppressed, and national interests at times were
sacrificed to
benefit supporters and relatives of Carías or major
foreign
interests.
Once in office, Gálvez demonstrated more independence
than had
generally been anticipated. Some policies of the Carías
administration, such as road building and the development
of coffee
exports, were continued and expanded. By 1953 nearly
one-quarter of
the government's budget was devoted to road construction.
Gálvez
also continued most of the prior administration's fiscal
policies,
reducing the external debt and ultimately paying off the
last of
the British bonds. The fruit companies continued to
receive
favorable treatment at the hands of the Gálvez
administration; for
example, United Fruit received a highly favorable
twenty-five-year
contract in 1949.
Galvez, however, instituted some notable alterations
from the
preceding fifteen years. Education received increased
attention and
began to receive a larger share of the national budget.
Congress
actually passed an income tax law, although enforcement
was
sporadic at best. The most obvious change was in the
political
arena. A considerable degree of press freedom was
restored, the PLH
and other groups were allowed to organize, and even some
labor
organization was permitted. Labor also benefited from
legislation
during this period. Congress passed, and the president
signed,
legislation establishing the eight-hour workday, paid
holidays for
workers, limited employer responsibility for work-related
injuries,
and regulations for the employment of women and children.
Data as of December 1993
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